The name of a village known as ‘Miyan ka Bara’ in Barmer district has now been changed to ‘Mahesh Nagar’ | (Photo Credits: ANI)

Jaipur, August 9: The Vasundhara Raje led Rajasthan government has decided to change the name of eight villages, which had Muslim names. The move to rename villages comes ahead of the assembly elections in Rajasthan, scheduled later this year or early 2019.

The name of a village known as ‘Miyan ka Bara’ in Barmer district has now been changed to ‘Mahesh Nagar’. The clarification given by the state government for changing the names of the villages is that the names changed of villages have a majority Hindu population and hence they should have Hindu names. Check the ANI tweet below:

#Rajasthan: Miyan Ka Bara, a village in Barmer renamed to Mahesh Nagar by Rajasthan govt. Hanumant Singh, former Sarpanch says,"Till India got independence,it was Mahesh Bara but during settlement, name was changed to Miyan Ka Bara. It has been renamed to Mahesh Nagar now."(7Aug) pic.twitter.com/tTJl0CnBqD

Another reason given by local leaders is that renaming the villages will make marriage proposals easier for the boys and girls in the village as the earlier names gave others "an impression" that the villages were Muslim dominated.

According to media reports, the government of Rajasthan had sent a proposal to the Union Home Ministry to rename 27 villages. The ministry, in its reply, has allowed to rename eight villages and hence the names of these villages have been changed.